"That you _won't_ get her? She doesn't; but on the other hand she
doesn't know you will. Meanwhile she sees you baffled, for she knows of
Aunt Maud's stand. _That_"--Kate was lucid--"gives her the chance to be
nice to you."
"And what does it give _me_," the young man none the less rationally
asked, "the chance to be? A brute of a humbug to her?"
Kate so possessed her facts, as it were, that she smiled at his
violence. "You'll extraordinarily like her. She's exquisite. And there
are reasons. I mean others."
"What others?"
"Well, I'll tell you another time. Those I give you," the girl added,
"are enough to go on with."
"To go on to what?"
"Why, to seeing her again--say as soon as you can: which, moreover, on
all grounds, is no more than decent of you."
He of course took in her reference, and he had fully in mind what had
passed between them in New York. It had been no great quantity, but it
had made distinctly at the time for his pleasure; so that anything in
the nature of an appeal in the name of it could have a slight kindling
consequence. "Oh I shall naturally call again without delay. Yes," said
Densher, "her being in love with me is nonsense; but I must, quite
independently of that, make every acknowledgement of favours received."
It appeared practically all Kate asked. "Then you see. I shall meet you
there."
"I don't quite see," he presently returned, "why she should wish to
receive you for it."
"She receives me for myself--that is for _her_ self. She thinks no end
of me. That I should have to drum it into you!"